Universal Rescue
by Aaron T Izzard
Summary: During a hunt for a Gem relic, Steven is lost to another universe, similar but so very differant to his own. Steven must find a way to get home, perhaps this Tracy Family, and their International Rescue Organisation could help, after all, rescues are their specialty.
1. Chapter 1

Universal Rescue

Aaron T Izzard

Prologue

The cave was dank, cold and practically pitch black, making navigation for any would be explorers, perilous. However, the group that had ventured into this place where bettered prepared than most, a thin woman of average height, led the group. A powerful beam of light shone from a polished white gem on her forehead, illuminating the path and obstacles in their way. A shorter woman with purple skin and long flowing hair followed close behind her.

"Ugh, how much longer P'? This is seriously snoozeville" said Amethyst.

"If you'd like to lead for a while and risk falling down a crevasse, then by all means please lead on" said Pearl her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Amethyst huffed, crossed her arms and said "Man now I wish I'd gone with Steven and Peri instead".

"Well I did give you the opportunity, if I remember your exact words were "I'm cool with whatever" I believe is what you said" Pearl said with an air of smugness.

"Ugh, fine! let's just find this dohicky and get home, I've got a pizza at home with my name on it" said Amethyst licking her lips.

Pearl cringed and shuddered at the mention of food "Very well then, let's continue" and with that the two of them set off again.

Garnet the heavy hitter of the Crystal gems held her left palm up in front of her sending a beam of indigo light out of the gem on her palm. She soon came to a T junction in the tunnel, she came to a stop and looked from left to right, behind her tinted glasses she shut her eyes as if to concentrate on something, her third eye opened and gazed to her right, she opened her other eyes and proceeded down the right-hand tunnel.

A young boy with curly brown hair and a short green woman were headed down another tunnel, large rocks and fallen stalactites formed large obstacles they had to navigate through, the short woman (Peridot) had a green triangle gem set in her forehead and was projecting a bright green beam of light. Steven the young boy was carrying a flash light and walking alongside her.

"Are you sure we're going the right way Peridot?" Steven Asked.

"Most certainly Steven, it's only logical the Anti-Chamber would be located in the deepest part of the caves to insure its safety, so the deeper we go the closer we'll be to the chamber" said Peridot.

"I guess it makes sense" agreed Steven as they continued on.

They continued on for almost two hours before they could see a faint reddish glow ahead of them, they'd found the Anti-Chamber. Steven pulled out a walkie-talkie out of his cheeseburger backpack to call the others.

"Amethyst can you hear me?" All Steven got back was static.

"We must be too far away from them for the radio waves to penetrate the rock down here" said Peridot.

"Then that means we'll have to get it ourselves" said Steven.

Gingerly the two of them made their way towards the ever-brightening light of the Anti-Chamber.

In the tunnels above them Garnet suddenly came to a complete stop with a look of sheer horror on her face she suddenly turned and ran back the way she'd come; her future vision had just showed her something and she needed to find Peridot and Steven FAST.

AS the two of them entered the Large Round chamber there was a pedestal in the centre of the room with an opaque pink sphere floating above it, the whole thing was surrounded within a shaft of red light.

AS they stepped towards the pedestal, ready to remove the sphere the shaft of red light disappeared and the sphere began to emit a deafening ringing that caused Steven and Peridot to cover their ears.

So, loud was the sound the Pearl and Amethyst in the tunnels far above them could clearly hear the sound. Upon hearing this burst of ringing sound Garnet began to move even faster, faster than she'd ever gone before, she needed to reach Steven and Peridot before something awful happened to them.

Meanwhile within the Anti-Chamber a fears wind was picking up a gale fore gust what was picking up dust pebbles and almost picked up Peridot had she not clung to a metal bar sticking out of the damaged section of wall. Steven was also fighting the fears howling winds, he struggled to maintain his footing and stand along the wall, but a sizable rock came flying at him and smacked him in the side of his head, the sharp corner of the rock cutting him on his forehead and he was sent tumbling.

"STEVEN!" shouted Peridot, she held out her hand out and caught the collar of Steven's shirt.

"Steven, are you Okay?" she asked shouting so Steven could hear her.

All she could get in response was something that might have sounded like "ouch" as the wind was getting even stronger. The wind was so strong was it now, that it picked them both up off their feet, they would have been sent flying if not for Peridot's firm hold on the metal bar.

At this Moment, Garnet had finally arrived and was met with the desperate situation before her, she extended one of her arms towards Peridot and shouted.

"Peridot! Hold on" shouted Garnet.

Peridot could feel Steven's shirt collar slipping through her fingers.

"HURRY! He's Slipping!" shouted Peridot.

Garnet tried to fight the wind and debris to grab them both, but just as she grabs onto Peridot, steven slipped from her grasp and flew through the air.

"Aaaahhhhhhh!" Steven cried.

"STEVEN!" they both yelled in abject horror.

Neither Garnet or Peridot could gab Steven as he was flung about on the swirling vortex, Steven tumbled and spun through the air, his hands desperately trying to grasp at something.

"GARNET! PERIDOT! HEEEEEELP" he screamed.

As Garnet reeled Peridot in, Peri' climbed onto Garnet's back and held on for dear life. Garnet then extended her hand to try and grab Steven.

"STEVEN! Grab MY HAND!" Garnet Shouted.

Steven tried to reach and orientate himself and make a grab for Garnet's hand. He tried and just managed to grab her hand, as soon as he did though, the wind and storm in the room grew in strength. Steven found it harder to hold on and the air itself seem to be trying to wrench him free of Garnet's grip.

As the rooms storm grew in strength, Peridot gripped onto Garnet Tighter and Garnet summoned one of her gloves to firmly dig into the wall and anchor herself into position.

With unnatural power the wind eventually pulled Steven free of Garnet's grip and he was airborne.

"NOOOOOOooooo" Peridot and Garnet screamed in unison.

"GUYS!" Steven screamed as tears began to stream from his eyes.

Steven Flew strait at the shimmering globe atop the pedestal.

"HEEEEEELL…" Steven was cut off mid speech.

As he made contact with pulsating globe, there was a terrific flash and the might winds instantly died down, the globe had stopped pulsating and all that could be heard was the drip, drip, drip of water droplets from the stalactites in the cave behind them.

Steadily a stream of tears began to stream down from behind Garnet's glasses, at this moment Amethyst and Pearl came running down the tunnel towards them.

"You found it Wonderful now we can go Home…" pearl cut herself off when she saw garnet's tears streaming down her face.

"What is it? What's Happened" Asked Amethyst.

"Steven… He was… dispersed… by the sphere" said Peridot, who had now climbed down from Garnet's back.

"I… I wasn't… strong enough… I failed Him" Garnet fell to her knees, embraced pearl and wept onto pearl's shoulder.

"Steven's really gone?" asked Amethyst, in a state of shock not really believing that Steven was gone.

"NOT FOR LONG" Peridot stamped her feet.

She ran into the room and stood at the foot of the pedestal.

"Well need to get the sphere back to the Temple, if we can figure out how it works, we might be able to pull Steven back to our plain of existence" said Peridot.

"But where is he now? Is he somewhere safe?" Asked Pearl with great concern as she now walked into the antechamber, followed closely by Garnet and Amethyst.

"I don't know, but wherever he is, we have to get him back" said Peridot bravely.

Wind, air rushed past Steven's head, as he opened his eyes he could feel his weightlessness as he tumbled, all round him he could see white and grey as he fell through clouds.

"Wooooooooooooe" he yelped as he tumbled through the clouds.

"Good thing I skipped lunch today" he said to himself, slowly turning green as he tumbled and spun through the cloud cover.

As he finally broke through the clouds, he could orientate himself now he knew which direction he was falling. As he manuvered himself so he was falling stomach first, he could see he was falling towards a vast ocean… and fast.

"Not good" he said.

"Come on bubble…" but no bubble appeared.

Closer and closer the surface of the water came towards him, and still his bubble wasn't working. He was now close enough to hear the waves of the choppy sea below.

"Come on bubble, COME OOOOOOON!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

With only seconds before he hit the surface, finally his translucent pink bubble surrounded him, the bubble slammed into the surface. Steven braced himself best as he could, just enough to hold his bubble together. His bubble began to sing down through the water, the light grew darker as the bubble sank deeper, the bubble came to rest on the white sandy bottom, seaweed and rocks of varying sizes littered the sea floor. Even in the dim light Steven could see quite some ways, the water remarkably clear, just to give him some extra light he reached into his cheeseburger backpack and produced a battery powered lantern, not very bright but enough to illuminate his way as he began to roll his bubble along the sea floor.

He didn't know how long he'd been traveling but Steven was starting to feel slightly tired and so decided to sit and rest for a few minutes. As he sat there wondering what had happened to himself and whether or not the gems were okay, Steven became aware of a light that was approaching from out of the gloom towards his position. Presently he began to have flashbacks to when he'd first met Connie and their time together in Beach city bay and the fight with the Glow Worm Gem, in short Steven was more than a little worried and without his mother's sword or any of the other gems to help he'd have to face thins one alone.

However, as the light came further and further, Steven could make out the shape of something large, the light wasn't from a corrupted gem, it was from a submarine of some sort, he couldn't quite make out the colour, but the light was attached to a pair of pylons that extended forward from the nose of the craft, on the nose he could make out a number of holes, the light from a cockpit was now visible too as was a prominent back fin.

"Well, this I did not expect" he said to himself staring at the mini submarine that now floated ahead of him.

The occupant of the craft, visible to Steven only in shadow, moved from the cockpit and faded out of sight, some moments later a hatch in the top of the craft opened and with a flourish of bubbles someone, presumably the pilot, exited the craft in scuba gear and began to swim toward Steven.


	2. Chapter 2

Universal Rescue

Aaron T Izzard

Rescue at Sea

The sun was shining and the sky was a deep clear blue, another beautiful day on a familiar tropical island in the south pacific. The hidden base of International Rescue, so far undetected, outwardly the luxury home of billionaire ex-astronaut, Jeff Tracy and his family.

Said ex-astronaut was currently down in the underground laboratory with International rescue's engineer "Brains", preparing for yet another test of some new equipment for International Rescue. Dressed in a plum colored shirt and bright blue blazer, He walked up beside Brains removing a pair of glasses and began to examine the screens in front of him.

"Okay Brains, open Thunderbird 2 hanger" said Jeff.

"Right away Mr. Tracy" said Brains.

Above ground, under the Tracy Island Cliff house, a section of cliff face gradually lowered into the ground and a large metal door behind it began to swing down, as it did the colossal hanger within was exposed along with the giant green transport ship inside.

Presently a humming/buzzing sound could be heard, and an odd looking yellow craft came speeding out of the hanger along the runway beyond. Inside the cockpit of the craft, in a red leather pilot's seat, was a man in his late twenties with ginger hair, and wearing a blue duty uniform and cap, an orange sash and belt completed his outfit.

"Thunderbird 4 to control, have exited hanger, proceeding to launch ramp" said Gordon Tracy, aquanaut of Thunderbird 4.

"Okay Gordon, lowering launch ramp and you're clear to go" said Jeff over his Radio.

"Thunderbird 4, F.A.B." replied Gordon.

Thunderbirds 4 continued on it's coarse down the islands runway, eventually reaching the boat dock, the end of which was descending into the water forming a launch ramp for the midget submarine. With a mighty splash Thunderbird 4 hit the water nose first, and like a hydrofoil, the turbo jets that allowed it to glide down the runway, now carried the craft over the blue waters of the pacific.

"Control from Thunderbird 4, proceeding along coarse 0-9-6 magnetic" Said Gordon steering thunderbird 4 in the right direction.

"O... Okay Gordon, N... now to test your b...b... buoyancy compensators, t... take her down" Stuttered Brains.

"F.A.B. Brains, activating buoyancy compensators, beginning decent" said Gordon pushing forwards on the control column as he pulled down on a red leaver on his control consol.

Swiftly and steadily, Thunderbird 4 began to dive into the deep blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, after reaching a suitable depth, Gordon pulled back on the steering column and Thunderbird 4 leveled out as she cruised above the seabed.

"Base from Thunderbird 4, test successful, the new B.C.S is working just fine, no snags so far, increasing speed to rate 3" Said Gordon.

Back in the lab.

"Well, looks like you've done it again Brains" said Jeff congratulating him.

"Well the early signs are certainly favorable, Mr. Tracy" said brains.

Meanwhile back beneath the blue waters of the Pacific, Gordon was enjoying himself immensely, it had been a while since his "bird" had been sent through her paces and was reveling in it, the new upgrades worked perfectly.

However as he was cruising across a rocky patch of the seabed, he noticed something of to his right.

"Say, that looks like a light" he said to himself.

It was indeed, a faint pink light that came from somewhere on his port side.

"Thunderbird 4 to base, I've found something, there's something on the sea bed not far from me, it looks like a light of some kind, I'm going in to investigate" he said.

"Take care Gordon" warned his father Jeff.

Thunderbird 4 steered over towards the light, as it did a light rail, an array of halogen bulbs arranged into a metal bar suspended in front of the craft on two arms, lit up producing a powerful beam of light that lit up the sea bed as it went. As he piloted thunderbird 4 closer to the light, the shape of a pink sphere became clearer to Gordon as he approached.

"I don't believe it" he said.

As Gordon drew his underwater craft closer, he could make out the shape of what looked like someone inside the pink globe.

"Thunderbird 4 to base, I've found something, it looks to be a small one manned diving sphere on the sea bed, there's no air or tow lines attached, and it looks like someone's trapped inside" said Gordon.

"Okay Gordon, see if they want any help, but be careful, they could be engaged in a top secret experiment down there" replied Jeff.

"F.A.B. father" Gordon acknowledged.

With the sphere now illuminated Gordon left the cabin and made his way to the airlock and readied to don his scuba diving gear.

"I thought this would be one test were I _wouldn't_ be getting my feet wet" muttered Gordon as he closed the airlock and donned the facemask and bronze colored re-breather onto his back.

With a flourish of bubbles Gordon shot out the top of Thunderbird 4's airlock hatch, attached to the belt of his diving gear were various gadgets for use underwater. As he swam closer to the Pink colored sphere, he could make out a child inside it, maybe 11 or 12, at his approach the boy stood up giving a smile and waved, as if finding himself on the seabed was a regular occurrence.

"Brains this is Gordon, i can see them, it's a kid, young fella too, I'm gonna send him a message on the light-type" that said, he removed the Light type device from his belt off equipment.

The Light-type was a blue/grey colored device with a handle on the bottom for holding it, built into the base of the handle was a rotary switch for turning the screen on and off. On the front of the device was a ten to twelve inch screen, on the back of device was a series of white buttons each with a black letter. When some one typed a sentence on the device using the keyboard and turned the switch on the bottom, the screen would light up with the typed message.

Gordon worked to type a message out on the Light-type.

HELLO ARE YOU IN TROUBLE

The boy seemed to think for a moment, looked over and eventually nodded a yes in reply.

CAN YOU MOVE THIS SPHEAR

The boy nodded enthusiastically, proceeded to pick up his hamburger shaped backpack and proceeded to roll the Sphere around Gordon to demonstrate this.

"Well, at least he isn't stuck in place" he said to himself.

He typed onto the Light-type.

CAN YOU GET TO SPHERE TO SURFACE

The boy looked up and shook his head. 'NO'

Gordon thought for a moment.

WILL TOW SPHEAR TO SURFACE AND GET YOU OUT

BE READY

The boy took on a confident expression and Nodded.

With that Gordon began to make his way back to Thunderbird 4.

"Gordon to control, I've made contact, still have no idea what I'm dealing with but the kid's asked for help. I'm returning to Thunderbird 4 to take the sphere to the surface" he said over his Mask radio.

Jeff came over his headset radio.

"Do you need assistance out there Gordon?" Asked his father.

"Nah, Relax, I got this one handled" he said confidently.

"Okay Gordon but be careful" said Jeff.

"FAB" Gordon replied.

HE swam back down into the airlock of the rescue submersible, in moments he was back in the pilots chair, still wearing his wetsuit, he powered up Thunderbird 4s motors.

The yellow rescue submarine rose off the ocean floor and whirred towards the pink sphere, the light bar in front of the sub lowered and out of two of the holes in the nose of the craft, two arms telescoped out the front. Each of the arms ended in what looked like a metallic suction cup.

The submarine then slowly crept towards the sphere, and very carefully made contact with the sphere with a gentle bump. His instrument panel told him he had a good and solid hold on the sphere, he looked out of the viewing window of the craft at the boy and grinning gave him a thumbs up, the boy smiled and gave a thumbs up in return.

Powering up the main motors, Thunderbird 4 began to rise and gain speed as the light became brighter; Gordon was both relieved and concerned that the boy was so calm about the whole situation.

Soon enough with a flourish of bubbles from TB4s buoyancy compensators and Thunderbird 4 broke the surface with the sphere still attacked to its arms. He disembarked through the roof hatch of the Airlock, still donning his wetsuit; he carried a compact laser cutter slung over his shoulder.

"How ya, doing Kido, you doing okay in there?" he asked, firstly to see if the kid was okay and secondly to see if he could hear him.

Boy smiled at Gordon.

"I´m good" he said smiling up at Gordon.

Gordon just shook his head in disbelief, who was this kid and where did he come from.

"Need any help getting out of there kiddo?" Gordon asked smiling at the ridiculousness.

"NO I can manage," said the boy as he stood up strait, he then clapped his hands twice.

Instantly the sphere popped with a bang like a large party balloon, obviously the boy hadn´t thought very far ahead, because he plunged strait into the water below him. He bobbed back up floundering momentarily but in a brief moment clambered to one of the arms of the mini-sub.

Gordon chuckled and using one of the holes in the nose of the sub as a foot hole, and holding onto the arm with his hand. Gordon then reached forward towards the boy to help him up and out of the water.

"Here, let me give you a hand" He said taking the boy by the arm.

"Th…th…thanks," he said shivering as he climbed onto the sub with the aquanaut.

"Come on kiddo, let´s get you inside and dried off" he said take the boy by the shoulder as he helped him up to the airlock hatch.

"You okay now kiddo?" asked Gordon handing him a bottle of water from a ration pack.

"Yeah, lots, thanks again for the help Mr.?" asked they boy with a pale blue towel draped over his shoulders.

"You can call me Gordon, what´s your name kiddo," asked Gordon

"Steve, Steven Universe" said Steven beaming with pride.

Gordon grinned and chuckled at the boy's unusual name.

"Well I've save quite a few people, but I've never saved the Universe before" Joked Gordon.

The joked seemed to be just what was needed to lighten the mood about the current situation; he may have been a very long way from home, but at least he´d met someone willing to help. As Steven was about to thank Gordon a beeping came from one of the console speakers, Gordon rushed over to it and picking up his radio mike answered the call.

"Thunderbird 4 reading loud and clear" said Gordon.

"Gordon stand by Virgil is on his way to pick you up" came Jeff's voice over the radio.

"Distress call from the central united states; Virgil´s on his way to pick you and Thunderbird 4 up" Jeff explained.

"Understood Dad, Thunderbird 4 FAB" he said putting the radio mike back down.

"Sorry Steven looks like we´ll have to wait to get you home" he said turning to the boy.

"What was that about a distress call?" asked Steven.

"Oh just another day at the office, my Brother Virgil will be along to pick us up, but you have to promise to do exactly what we say" explained Gordon.

"Sir, yes SIR!" said Steven giving a salute.

Gordon chuckled.

"I better get changed won´t be a moment" he said.

Within minutes, the mighty International rescue Carrier ship, Thunderbird Two, had arrived to pick up Gordon (now donning his duty uniform) and his passenger Steven. The mighty green sip lowered it´s cargo pod (a section of the sip making up it´s center fuselage, and could be changed out to allow for the craft to carry different rescue equipment for different rescues) onto the water with four strong reinforced prehensile cables.

Once on the water, Pod 4s flap (a drawbridge like hatch on the front of the container) lowered and out of it´s opening came an extending launch ramp for Thunderbird 4, As Gordon piloted the submersible craft towards it´s hanger, a telescoping arm, ending in a magnetic claw, extended down the ramp. Once in position the claw grabbed the front of the craft, it was then hauled up the ramp and into the pod and secured buy several locking arms.

Steven watched the whole operation with great interest, he´d never seen anything this large and advanced before… well nothing this advanced and huge that was man made that is.

As he and Gordon disembarked, Steven saw two things at the back of the pod that looked like strange eight wheeled fire trucks, each had a number and letter, the first was F1 the second was F2, were they going to fight a fire?

He had so many questions to ask, like who where they? Were where they from? Did they like crying breakfast friends? Had they ever been to space?

All these and more, perhaps he could ask them on the way to this disaster, and maybe he could make friends with Gordon's brother Virgil too.


	3. Chapter 3

Universal Rescue

Aaron T Izzard

Blazing Danger

Jeff sat at his Desk looking at paperwork from one of a number of engineering firms he´d been looking at to acquire new parts and components for the International rescue fleet. As he was finalizing the latest document, one of the five portraits of his sons began to beep the eyes of Scott´s painting flashed in sync with the beeping. Jeff reached over to his left, pressing a concealed button, the brass ashtray on his desk flipped up to reveal a hidden microphone.

"Go ahead Scott" he said.

The image of Scott in his duty uniform was replaces with a beep as the live video feed inside Thunderbird 1, Scott was sat in the pilot seat of the Rocket plane as he turned to the camera.

"I just arrived at the Danger zone, the good news is that it´s not as bad as first appeared but the fire marshal told me several men in the main complex are unaccounted for" Scott reported.

"Okay Scott you´d better let Virgil and Gordon know what to expect" he advised.

High above the Pacific coast of the United States, Virgil and his passengers were making their way to the danger zone aboard IRs transport ship Thunderbird 2. Virgil and Gordon where donned in their duty uniforms, Steven was sat in one of the passenger seats swinging his legs back and forth.

"So your dad, married an alien freedom fighter, and now you have her powers and fight monsters?" asked Gordon a little perplexed at the whole story Steven had conveyed to them on the way to the Danger zone.

"Pretty much" Steven said shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, I'd say it´s far fetched, but after what I've seen Virg´, I don´t know what to think" said Gordon.

"We can discuss this back at base, in the meantime we´ve got a job to do" Said Virgil.

Presently Scott´s voice came over the radio.

"Come in Thunderbird 2, this is Thunderbird 1" Came Scott's voice

"Receiving you Thunderbird 1, what´s that Sit Rep?" Asked Virgil.

"It´s bad Virg', but not as bad as first appeared, the local fire department have managed to contain the fire, the problem is the reactor is right at the heart of the fire, and there are me in the main building attempting to shut it down, first priority should be evacuating those researchers, then tackle the shutdown of the reactor" Scott reported.

"F.A.B Scott, so what´s the action?" asked Virgil.

"You and me will enter the reactor room and attempt to shutdown the reactor and evacuate the building, Gordon, you´re job will be to spray down the reactor dome and keep it from over heating and buy us time to shut down the reactor." Scott said.

"F.A.B" Virgil and Gordon replied.

Steven looked a little confused, he turned to Gordon and raised his had to ask a question, Gordon smile and him and said.

"What´s on your mind kiddo?" asked Gordon.

"Um…what dose F.A.B mean? You guys say it a lot" Asked Steven.

"Oh it a communications phrase, it stands for Fully Acknowledged and Briefed, we use it to tell some one we´re talking to over the radio that we got the massaged loud and clear" explained Gordon.

"Wow, that´s so cool, you guys have like, a secret code, that´s **awesome** , well not as awesome and the submarine or this really cool ship." Said Steven.

Gordon gave a light chuckle, and Virgil rolled his eyes and gave a light smile, that both admired the kids raw energy and excitement.

It didn´t take long for the colossal transport ship, traveling at over two thousand miles per hour, to reach it´s destination. From the viewing windows of the cabin, the three occupants could see the tower of smoke rising up out of the large complex.

"Thunderbird one from Thunderbird 2, approaching Danger Zone, any place for me to come down close to the fire?" Asked Virgil.

"F.A.B Virgil, but it´s risky, there´s a fuel dump with a large car park within the exclusion zone, but there´s a chance the fire could spread to it if there´s an accident." Scott reported.

"We have to chance it, cutting down on the journey time for our Fire Fighters could mean the difference between success and the total destruction of the place, I'm coming down now, better head over there and wait for us to land." Said Virgil.

"F.A.B" replied Scott.

Virgil turned to his two passengers.

"Better buckle up fellas, Loosing height now" with one hand on the wheel and his left hand on a white leaver on his left.

Thunderbird 2 banked and began to slowly descend to the facility below.

Scott had arrived at the fuel depot aboard his hover bike, and donned in a distinctive white fire suit, boots and gloves, and a blue hood with clear visor. He sat in the seat of his Hover Bike, as he caught sight of the green ship above, waving up as it began it´s vertical decent. With the thunderous blast of it´s landing motors, Thunderbird two made a gentle landing in the depot car park.

Inside.

"Okay Gordon Get the Fire fighter´s ready, I'll get the protective suits." Said Virgil.

"On it" said Gordon already disappearing through hatch in the back of the cabin.

Virgil walked in front of Steven and kneeled down in front of him.

"Okay Steven, now I'm going to ask you to stay put, it´s to dangerous for you out there" said Virgil.

Steven huffed a sigh.

"You have a very important job, guarding Thunderbird 2, incase someone tries to sneak aboard" Virgil smiled.

Steven´s eyes where alight with stars, as he jumped up onto his seat.

"F.A.B Mr. Virgil sir, I'll do my best," he said grinning confidently.

Virgil grinned two.

"Come on, I'll show you how to lower the pod" Said Virgil cupping he boy´s back as they both left the cabin.

As Scott came to the back of Thunderbird 2, the massive transporter began to rise up on four, brass colored, telescoping legs. As the front and rear doors of the pod cleared the hull, the rear hatch proceeded to lower down to the asphalt. Then with a roar of powerful engines, Fire Fighter One rolled out of the Pod and onto the tarmac.

The might looking red fire appliance, rolled along side Scott, Gordon´s voice came over Scott´s headset radio.

"Someone call a taxi?" Gordon asked.

"Right on time" Scot answered.

Scott then proceeded to climb aboard the vehicle, meanwhile back inside the pod of Thunderbird 2.

"You sure you got it written down there?" Asked Virgil as he adjusted the straps of his fire suits equipment.

"Yep, it´s all good you´re clear to go" Steven grinned widely at him.

"Thanks" Virgil smiled as he donned the pale blue hood.

He then climbed aboard the second fire fighter and it too rolled out of the pod to join the other one.

From inside the cab of Fire Fighter one, Scott walked up beside Gordon and picked up a radio mike.

"Okay fellas let´s go," said Scott into a radio mike.

And so, the cavalcade rolled onwards towards the heart of the disaster, Virgil looked in the rearview mirror of his Fire Fighter to see Thunderbird 2 settling back down onto it´s pod.

As Virgil and Scott entered the main reactor building they found the reactor personel, donned in their blue radiation suits.

"Boy are we glad to see you fellas, we've been trying to get the reactor back under contol to shut it down, with out much sucsess i'm afraid" Said one of the researchers.

"Name's Meddings, cheif controler, we can keep the reactor under control for the moment but not for long, we can't get in to handle the contol rods, because we're needed in here to keep the reactor for over loading" said Meddings.

"Don't worry, we have a man out side in a fire appliance spraying the reactor dome, that should help keep her cool and stable long enough for us to shut it down" Explained Scott.

"Sounds good, we'll be able monitor you from here, the rod control room is through that air lock over there" said Meddings pointing to the large re enforced door.

"Okey, let's go virgil" Siad Scott.

"Right" afermed Virgil as the two of them entered into the airlock.

The control rods all lined the far wall, at least 13 rods each at least, each stood ten feet long and were coloured in ulternating bands or red and yellow, above each rod was a squear plack with the number and two lights one red and one green, at the mmoment they where all flashing red.

Meddings voice now came over the speakier system.

"You'll hhave to incert the rods in the right order, or we could cause the reactor to race away" warned Meddins.

"Having any Flash backs Virgil?" Asked Scott.

"Sahara Station all over again" Said Virgil.

"Okay, Start with Number Eight" Instructed Meddins.

Virgil walked up to the rod and gently grabbing the handle, he slowly pushed the rod forwards, with each lengh of band that disapeared into the wall there was a resounding 'Ker-chunk' after pushing six feet of the rod into the wall, the light runed green.

"One down twelve to got" Said Virgil.

"The next two have to be done symaltaniusly, number five and number eleven" said Meddings.

Virgil took rod number five and Scott number eleven, and the two of them together began to push the rods into possition.

Gordon continued to spray down the reactor dome with the water from the Fire Fighter's jets, he watched as the gauge for the water tanks became more and more empty, slowly the little black needle entered into the red zone of the gauge.

"Guys, i hope you're almost done in there, i'm about to run dry, i might have to use the other Fire Fighter's supply" Said Gordon over the radio.

"We've still got several rods to go yet gordon, use the other Fire Fighter's supply" Scott replied.

"F.A.B" replied Gordon.

Leaving his Fire Fighter's hooses running, he exited his vehicle and climbed down onto the concreate ground. The fires around the area still raged, smoke so thick it almost blocked out the sun, plunging the whole area into twilight, what light there was, was being brovided by raging inferno they were sittting in currently. He rushed across the ground to Fire Fighter 2, he climbed the side ladder, opened the hatch and enterd; Taking his possition in the sear of the vehicle and started it, the engine of the vehicle roared to life as he rolled it forwards and manuvered it into possition.

Just as Gordon possitioned Fire Fighter 2 redy to start spraying, Fire Fighter 1's hosses ran dry, Gordon waisted now time, he turned to his right and grabbed onto two red leavers pulling on both of them. This operated the Fire Fighter's telescoping ladder/arm, the arm/ladder ended in a large red, squear shaped turret, that mounted a double barral fire hoose. The ladder/arm raised and exteded forwards towards the dome, Gordon then pulled back on a white leaver, this swung the arm/ladder over to the left, directly over the reactor dome. Pushing forward on a black leaver activated the double barraled water cannon, twin jets of high presure water started washing over the reactor dome.

Steven found himself looking out from the viewing windows of Thunderbird 2's cabin, out at the smoke and flames in the near distance.

"I hope Gordon and the others are okay" he said aloud.

He spied the radio mike he'd seen Virgil use to contact someone called Scott, he lifted it up from the mike holder and saw the small button on the side.

"Hello, anyone there?" he asked.

But did not get a responce, he looked at the consol he'd got the mike from and found a black dile, with little back ettched notches each with a number, the dile was currently set to channel three. Steven reached for the dile and turned it clockwise to channel four, and tried the radio again.

"Hello, is anyone there?" Steven asked again.

The was a moments silence, then a voice awnsered.

"Steven?, That you? What's wrong kiddo?" Asked Gordon.

"Um... I... I just want to you if you guys... um... Need any help?"

Steven rubbed his arm nerviously as theer was now a pregnant pause.

"Nah relax Steven, We'll be finnished up soon, no worries" Gordon said reassuringly.

Steven smiled and sat back into one of TB2s passenger seats, still holding the radio mike.

"So um...How's everything with you?" steven asked.

Gordon chuckled.

"Okay for the most part, Scot and Virg' are in the reactor room right now, they should be finnished soon" said Gordon.

Steven nodded, though he didn't know what a reactor was, somthing that... reacts with things, it must have been important and very complicated if Virgil and his Bother both were needed to bring it under control.

Steven was about to ask another question before he felt TB2 being rocked by an explosion, the vibrations shaking Thunderbird 2, as steven became alert, he could see a dark cloud of debris being thrown into the air.

"Steven? What was that?" aske Gordon sounding worried.

"Somthing just blew up, off in the distance, where the fire is" Steven explained.

Presently several large bits of flaming debris came crashing down, steven heard several objects striking the hull of Thunderbird 2, Steven was shaking with fear and more debris came raining down.

As he began to calm himself, he looked and saw what apeared to be a flaming barrel, come crashing down right into the fuel depot. After impact Flams instantly sprung up, creeping across the fuel depot, the crapt passed the pumps, setting alight fuel hooses that lay spralled across the vehicle bays.

"Gordon, somthing on fire just fell into the gas station and there now a big fire and it's getting bigger!" Steven said a little worried.

Gordon was now much more worried flaming debris had hit the fuel depot and set it a blaze.

"Steven Say calm i'll get beck to you in a second, just stay calm" Instructed Gordon.

"Okay..." Steven said unsure.

As steven waited with bated breath for Gordon to come back over the radio, there was an almighty explosion, the shockwave knocking Steven off his feet and to the floor.

Out side the research center, Scott Virgil and the others were working on getting the personel evacuated, now that the reactor was safly shut down, Virgil and Scott were escorting the Personel out of the control building.

"Scott, Virgil, Steven's in trouble" Said Gordon Over the suit's headsets.

"What's wrong?" Asked Virgil.

"Flaming debris is raining down on Thunderbird 2, the fuel depot has caught fire and it could go up at any moment" Gordon Explained.

"Right; Virgil You and Gordon head back to Thunderbird 2, i'll get the reactor personel to saftey in one of the FireFighters" Said Scott.

"F.A.B" replied Virgil and Gordon.

Once out side, Virgil boarded Gordon's Firefighter, while Scott and Professor Meddings along with the rest of the personel boarded the other FireFighter. After they'd boarded their rescepctive vehicles, the Two parties departed, Scott headed for the evacuation area, whil Gordon and Virgil headed back to Thunderbird 2.

Both of them worrying about what state would they find Steven and the Rescue ship in, Neither of them daring to emagine the state both the boy and the ship would be in, as the rounded the final bend and entered into the open space of the car park, they both looked on in shock.

Gordon only just managing to bring the vehicle to a complete stop, as the both looked on in a mixture of shock and dis-belief, Virgil quickly regained his composure and assesed the situation. He picked up the radio mike from beside Gordon.

"Scott from Virgil, How long are you gonna be Scott?" Asked Vergil, keeping perfectly calm and racional.

"I'm Dropping Meddings and his personel now" Awnsered Scott.

"OKay, see if you can get your FireFighter refilled and get back here as soon as you can, we're gonna need your help with this one" Virgil Explaned.

"F.A.B, E.T.A thirty minutes" Replied Scott.

"Okay gordon, hood on and let's go" Said Virgil.

Together donning their suits potective hoods, along with equipment tool belts, then exeted the FireFighter, stepping out into the open Car Park, then advanced towards Thunderbird two...

The whole left side of the craft engulfed in flames.


End file.
